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(John L. Lewis mincing no words before Congressional hearings on Mine Safety - 1952)

Editors Note: This is a repost from last year, the occasion being the recent Mine disaster in West Virginia. As part of this continuing look at the Labor Movement in America, I'm including it here as a reminder - G.S.

With the news earlier today of the Mine disaster in West Virginia, I was reminded how much mine safety had been an issue during the days when John L. Lewis was President of the United Mine Workers Union. How accidents were a common occurrence some 60 years ago and how much of a struggle there was to ensure safe working conditions for miners in this country. That the accident in West Virginia was the worst of its kind in 25 years suggests that conditions have improved. But the danger is still the same and the loss of life is never different. The question if whether conditions have been relaxed in recent years is always up for speculation. The notion of cutting corners to increase profit is a consideration. Perhaps not to the extent in John L. Lewis's day as is evidence by this excerpt from his opening statement during a Congressional investigation on Mine Safety in 1952.

John L. Lewis: “I sometimes wonder why the great God above don’t punish them while they’re speaking their brutal language before the Congress of the United States.”

But then, John L. Lewis was never one to mince words.

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(Rarely invited - barely a guest)

With talk of Immigration reform looming before Congress, I thought it would be a good idea to start looking at the Illegal Immigration question as its been posed for easily past 50 or so years. Today's particular installment puts us in 1973, a little less than a year after Congressman Peter Rodino introduced a bill to address the illegal immigration issue. It wasn't terribly popular and it ultimately did nothing to stem the tide of illegal immigration into the U.S. Here is a documentary produced as part of All Things Considered from NPR on July 16-21, 1973.

Peter Rodino (discussing The Rodino Immigration Bill): “This law is intended to provide some kind of a red flag and penalties for the employer who knowingly employs illegal aliens. It’s a fair bill, it’s designed to provide for an orderly flow of immigration, to eliminate the incentive of the illegal alien who comes into this country believing that here is his only opportunity and I sympathize with him because I know a good many of these people are unable to get jobs which will give them the kind of existence they could find here. But on the other hand, it disrupts the orderly flow of immigration in this country. It swells our welfare rolls, it prejudices the working conditions of those people who are on regular labor standards, it also serves really as a vehicle to exploit the very illegal alien.”

At the moment, it would seem the tidal wave of illegal aliens has subsided simply because there is little or no work to be had. But I suspect the reason there hasn't been an effective piece of legislation dealing with the issue of illegal immigration is that it effectively cuts off a source of cheap and exploitable labor which, lets face it, is a bargaining chip held over many states in lieu of companies packing up and heading overseas. Although, to be fair, most immigrant workers have been field labor in the area of agriculture - and that's something you can't export overseas.

It will be interesting to see which direction this all takes in the coming months/years. Like Health Care, Immigration reform has been something talked about but rarely acted upon since World War 2.

Stay tuned for more examples.